[Note by Pat McMurray, who transcribed this Agenda in 1998. To quote from the Resolutions and Rulings of Continuing Effect: "The written notes of the Secretary and a tape recording of the Business Meeting were both destroyed in an apartment fire before they could be transcribed or distributed. Thus no minutes exist for this Business Meeting." However there does exist a copy of the Agenda of the Main Meeting, annotated by Benjamin M Yalow. Insertions [THUS] and the site selection results are from Ben's Notes..]

[Note by Tim Illingworth: I’ve taken Pat’s transcription and attempted to turn it into a list of the business transacted, with appropriate notes and commentary. Things which were noted in typescript on Ben’s copy are assumed to have happened at the Preliminary Business Meeting; those in manuscript at the Main Business Meeting. Unfortunately, the Seacon Program Book doesn’t show either the Constitution, the Standing Rules, or the Business Passed On, so I’ve checked some of the things with the Noreascon II Program Book, which does.]

NOTES of the 1979 WSFS Business Meeting

Presiding Officer: Donald Eastlake

Secretary: Rick Katze

The Meeting was held in the Metropole Hotel, Brighton, England.

BUSINESS PASSED ON by the 1978 Business Meeting at Iguanacon, held in Phoenix, Arizona.

1. MOVED, to amend Article III of the WSFS Constitution by adding the following:
Site selection ballots shall include name, signature, address, and membership number spaces to be filled in by the voter. The name and address information shall be separated from the ballot and the ballots counted only at the convention with two witnesses from each bidding committee allowed to observe. Each bidding committee may make a record of the name and address of every voter.

The Preliminary Business Meeting set the time limit at 6 minutes.

The Main Business Meeting ratified the amendment unchanged.

2. MOVED, to amend Article III of the WSFS Constitution by adding the following:
Members of the Society paying the minimum fee towards membership with their site selection ballots shall be members of the selected convention, with the right to receive all generally distributed publications. Those who have voted may convert to members with the right of general attendance at the selected convention and its Business Meeting by paying, within 90 days of site selection, an additional fee, set by the selected convention committee, of not more than the minimum voting fee and not more than the difference between the voting fee and the attending fee for new members.

The Preliminary Business Meeting set the time limit at 20 minutes.

The Main Business Meeting changed "Those who have voted" to "Such members", and ratified the amendment.

New Business:

3. MOVED, that the WSFS Constitution be amended as follows:

A. Add at the end of Article III, Section 3, the following:
A fourth region, called "Outside North America", shall consist of all the area not included in the three regions above.

B. Insert in Article III, Section 4, the words "Outside North America" between the word "Central" and the word "Eastern"; and

C. Replace Article III, Section 5, with the following:
When a convention site in the region "Outside North America" is selected, there shall be an interim Continental Convention in one of the North American Regions. Selection of the site of such Continental Convention may be by vote of the Business Meeting or by such other method as the competing bidders might agree upon.

NOTE IN AGENDA: This has not been passed by the previous Worldcon Business Meeting.

The Preliminary Business Meeting set the time limit at 20 minutes.

The Main Business Meeting defeated the motion.

Quite what new business is doing here in the middle of Business Passed On, I don’t know. Presumably there was a reason that seemed good at the time...

Business Passed On, again:

4. MOVED, to amend Article IV of the WSFS Constitution by adding Standing Rules to those rules in accordance with which the Business Meeting is to be conducted, adding Standing Rules to the items to be printed by the Convention Committee, and substitute the following for Section 3:
The conduct of all the affairs of the Society shall be determined by this Constitution together with all ratified amendments hereto and such Standing Rules as the Business Meeting may adopt for its own governance.

The Preliminary Business Meeting set the time limit at 6 minutes.

The Main Business Meeting ratified the amendment unchanged.

5. MOVED, to amend Article III of the WSFS Constitution by striking out all of Section 4 after the first sentence and inserting the following:

Each site selection ballot shall list the options "None of the above" and "No preference" after the bidders and with equal prominence. A ballot voted with first or only choice for "No preference" shall be ignored for site selection. A ballot voted with lower than first choice for "No preference" shall be ignored if all higher choices on the ballot have been eliminated in preferential tallying. "None of the above" shall be treated as a bid for tallying. If it wins, the duty of site selection shall devolve on the Business Meeting of the Current Convention. If the Business Meeting is unable to decide by the end of the Convention, the Committee for the following Convention shall make the selection without undue delay. When a site and committee are chosen by a Business Meeting or Convention Committee, they are not restricted by region or other qualifications and the choice of an out of rotation site shall not affect the regional rotation for subsequent years. If no bids qualify to be on the ballot, the selection shall proceed as though "None of the above" had won.

The Preliminary Business Meeting set the time limit at 10 minutes.

The Main Business Meeting ratified the amendment unchanged.

6. MOVED, to amend Article 1, Section 5, of the WSFS Constitution

A. by striking the words "of the membership".

B. by striking the words "and should publish or have published by the following Convention Committee a final financial report" and appending the following:
Each Convention Committee shall retain an independent certified public accountant at least a year before their convention and shall publish a financial statement compiled and reviewed by said accountant within 90 days after their convention and a final financial statement within a year.

The Preliminary Business Meeting deleted the words "certified public" and divided the question, setting the time limit for part A at 6 minutes and for part B at 30 minutes.

The Main Business Meeting amended "compiled and reviewed" to "prepared". It then ratified both parts of the amendment.

Committee Reports:

7. Report by the Committee drafting a new constitution. The Committee filed a written report. A motion was made, seconded and passed by the Preliminary Business Meeting:
(a) to continue the committee for one year,
(b) to refer the report back to the committee,
(c) to request that Noreascon 2 publish the report in a P. R. and
(d) to accept it as an interim committee report.

8. The Art Hugo report was moved by acclamation and a motion was made, seconded and passed by the Preliminary Business Meeting thanking the Committee for its work.

NEW BUSINESS (again):

9. MOVED, to amend the WSFS Constitution by adding the following to Article III:
The site selection voting totals shall be published with the by-mail and at-con votes distinguished.

The Preliminary Business Meeting set the time limit at 10 minutes.

The Main Business Meeting amended "published" to "announced at the business meeting, and published in the first or second PRs of the winning bid,", and then passed the amendment.

A motion was made to delete "at the business meeting of the current convention" from Article III, Section 1. Don Eastlake ruled that these words have been implicitly deleted. Standing rule 17 was also ruled to be deleted because the Constitution has incorporated Standing Rules. It is not clear from the notes whether this was an amendment to Item 9 or, more likely considering the ruling, an attempt to introduce a separate motion to delete the surplus text following the passage of Item 9.

10. MOVED, to amend Article III, section 5 of the WSFS Constitution by deleting all of Section 5 after the first sentence.

(This would abolish the so-called NASFIC or Continental Convention. Basically there is no good reason for the WSFS to sponsor a convention to compete with the WORLDCON)

Proposed by jan howard finder and seconded by Nellie Pardoel. (The text in parentheses is Mr. finder’s explanation of the motion.)

This motion was introduced at the Main Business Meeting, which defeated it.

Mr finder added the following proviso, which was not considered:

If the above fails to pass, then I would like to offer the following amendment.

MOVED, to amend Article III of the WSFS Constitution by adding the following:
In the event that a Convention site being selected within North America, there shall be an interim non-North American Convention to be held outside North America in the same year as the North American World Science Fiction Convention. Selection of the site of such a Non-North American Convention may be by vote of the Business Meeting or by such other method as the competing bidders might agree upon.

(If North American fen can have a North American Convention, when the World Science Fiction Convention goes outside North America, it must follow that Non-North American fen should be able to have a Non-North American Convention, when the World Science Fiction Convention goes inside North America. Fair is fair and all that!)

Site Selection Results